Are Spanish verbs confusing you? Unsure of verb conjugations, not sure how to use a tense? Or perhaps you feel pretty comfortable but you really need to focus to get it right, you just can’t recall everything fast enough? My absolute favorite Spanish resource of all time when I was learning was 501 Spanish Verbs. I mastered conjugations extremely fast using this book.

Spanish verbs do seem confusing at first since there are so many more conjugations than in English not too mention all the tenses and moods, but the conjugations themselves (how to change the base verbs to the different tenses) are not that difficult if you master the patterns. This book will help you with that. Everything is organized very well. The verbs are in alphabetical order and the verb tables are easy to read. Only the most essential verbs are displayed (hence 501- there are many more regularly used in everyday language). Each verb has some sample sentences how to apply them.

The most difficult part of learning Spanish verbs is how to use them, learning the differences between each tense.  For example, what’s the difference between the simple past and the imperfect past? When should you say, “Yo fuí a la playa.”, or “Yo iba a la playa.”? That’s where this book really can help you. It contains a section at the beginning describing how to use each tense and mood with examples. It still takes time to learn the more difficult ones but that section alone helped accelerate my learning.

There’s another section for teaching irregular verbs (verbs that don’t just have verb ending changes like tengo from tener or vienes from venir). Even irregular verbs can be fairly simple to learn if you follow the patterns. For example, verbs that end in “cer” like parecer or merecer are conjugated the same in the present subjunctive mood “parezca” and “merezca”.

How can I practice verb conjugation?

Two of the best ways I practiced perfecting verb conjugation was by writing to Spanish speaking friends either chatting/IMing, texting or emails. What I liked about IMing was that it made me respond and think fast. It forced me to recall the conjugations faster, but not quite as fast as speaking. This gives you time to organize your thoughts and actually see the words on the screen before you hit send. The same really goes for texting too. If you don’t have many friends who speak Spanish then consider finding friends on Facebook or some other website. There is no need to pay for practicing something that should be free. You could find tutors, but it is not as fun and doesn’t allow you to practice naturally in real life conversations.  And don’t be intimidated, your friends will be more than happy to correct you.

As you write keep 501 Spanish Verbs next to you. But your main goal is to write a lot. The more the merrier.

Check out this book, you won’t regret it. It saved my “Spanish life”. Master Spanish Verbs.

What are some of the ways you like to practice Spanish verbs???

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